Avocado tree named &#39;Flavia&#39;

ABSTRACT

The ‘Flavia’ avocado is notable for its larger fruit size and earlier fruit maturity for harvesting than ‘Hass’.

LATIN NAME OF THE GENUS AND SPECIES

Persea americana Mill.

VARIETAL DENOMINATION

‘Flavia’

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

‘Flavia’ is a new and distinct variety of avocado tree Persea americanaMill. The variety was first discovered in 1998 by Alfredo SchiapacasseMacchiavello, who noted a tree that produced bigger fruit in his compact‘Hass’ cultivated avocado orchard in the Mallarauco Valley in Chile. Thetree is located in the orchard called Ensenada, in the plot called ElMarco.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The ‘Flavia’ discovered tree is presumed to be a mutated bud (a wholetree mutation) from ‘Hass’. Budwood from the originally discovered treewas grafted into new trees, which were planted in 2001 as anon-propagation trial, and has since been observed to remain true totype over successive asexually propagated generations.

The tree was discovered after observing through several years that thefruit size was consistently larger than the other ‘Hass’ trees from theorchard. After several evaluations, it has been determined that the treeconsistently produces larger fruit than ‘Hass’. Moreover, ‘Flavia’reaches minimum dry matter level (23% DM), and thus can be harvested,four to five weeks earlier than regular ‘Hass’.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS

The accompanying photographs show specimens of the tree and plant partsof the new ‘Flavia’ variety.

FIG. 1 is a photograph of the originally discovered ‘Flavia’ mothertree;

FIG. 2 is a photograph depicting fruit and leaves of ‘Flavia’;

FIG. 3 is a photograph depicting fruit and leaves next to a hand holdinga pen for size reference;

FIG. 4 is a photograph of four ‘Flavia’ fruit above four typical ‘Hass’fruit, illustrating the enlarged nature of the ‘Flavia’ fruit; and

FIG. 5 is a photograph depicting sectioned fruit of the ‘Flavia’ aboveregular ‘Hass’ fruit.

DETAILED BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE VARIETY

The following detailed botanical description is based on observations ofa 2007 report based upon ‘Flavia’ trees planted in 2001. The grower of‘Flavia’ at times refers to it by the code names GAMA 4022 or Andes 3.The 2007 report comprised a four-year study evaluating and comparing the‘Flavia’ trees to similar trees grafted with ‘Hass’. The trees wereplanted in Sep. 2001, as a non-propagation trial in Huerto California inQuillota, Chile. Budwood from the mother ‘Flavia’ tree was granted intonew trees which were planted as part of the non-propagation trial.

Aside from the fact that the ‘Flavia’ produces larger fruit than theregular ‘Hass’, and reaches dry minimum matter level four to five weeksearlier than regular ‘Hass’, it is otherwise nearly identical in colorand appearance as to regular ‘Hass’ trees.

More particularly, the tree presents a vigorous upright growth, asillustrated in FIG. 1. The young shoots are reddish in color. The youngshoot lenticels are purple in color. The anise aroma of the leaf bladeis absent or very weak, similar to ‘Hass’. The inflorescence floweringtype is similar to ‘Hass’ Type A.

With respect to the fruit, the surface of the mature fruit is rough,similar to ‘Hass’. The thickness of the pedicel compared to thepeduncle, at the junction, is thicker. The pedicel length is medium. Thepedicel shape is cylindrical. There is no “nail head” pedicel. Thethickness of the ripe fruit skin is moderately thick, similar to ‘Hass’.Also similar to ‘Hass’, the ripe fruit color is a dark purple or black.

However, unlike ‘Hass’, the shape in the longitudinal section or lateralview of the seed is generally ovate, as illustrated in FIG. 5. Withrespect to the fruit shape, the polar/equatorial relation of the fruitis higher in ‘Flavia’ than in ‘Hass’, as seen in FIGS. 4 and 5, makingthe fruit more elongated than ‘Hass’. The seed of the ‘Flavia’ fruit isbigger than that of ‘Hass’, as shown in FIG. 5, and the seed/pulprelation is greater in ‘Flavia’ than in ‘Hass’. As can be seen in FIG.4, the fruit of ‘Flavia’ is much larger than that of regular ‘Hass’.

Another distinctive feature of ‘Flavia’ is that the fruit matures forharvesting four to five weeks earlier than regular ‘Hass’. The time offruit maturity for harvesting, when the fruit reaches minimum dry matterlevel (23% DM) is medium to late, between ‘Fuerte’ and ‘Hass’.

What is claimed is:
 1. A new and distinct variety of avocado tree,substantially as illustrated and described herein.